The present invention relates generally to the field of knitted garments, and more particularly, is directed to a novel method of knitting a plurality of collars for use with knitted shirts or sweaters.
It is the present practice to employ flat bed knitting machines to knit collars suitable for use with knitted sweaters, knitted shirts and the like. Fashion pointed collars have conventionally been knitted on flat machines as have collars having oval and straight folding indentation marks thereon. Additionally, Jacquard designs and two and three color collars have all been knitted on flat machines by prior workers in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,662 is exemplary of one such prior art type of knitted collar construction.
The collars produced on the flat bed machines are quite satisfactory in quality and style, but because of the nature of the operation of the flat machines, the collars are produced one at a time, and accordingly, the production of each collar is deliberate and quite time consuming. When considering the cost of machine operation and the pay received by skilled operators, this time consuming process has resulted in collar fabrication costs which are disproportionately high when compared to the total cost of the sweater or shirt article itself.